Thomas Gardner was an Overseer of the "old planters" party of the Dorchester Company that landed, in 1624 at Cape Ann, to form a colony. The party landed at, what is now known as, Gloucester. Thomas is considered by some as the 1st Governor of Massachusetts, due to his being in authority in the first settlement that became the Massachusetts Bay Colony (which later subsumed the Plymouth Colony). Thomas, and his wife, Margaret Fryer, had nine children and many descendants.